For the past three years, sophomore defender Ashley Bock has not let a pacemaker hinder her playing the game of soccer.The trouble for Bock began during a high school soccer game against her school’s archrival, Martin High School.

“It all started in high school in my junior year,” Bock said. “I scored a goal, and I’m celebrating. All of a sudden, I can’t breathe, and I pass out. I was unconscious for seven minutes. When I woke up, my lips and fingers were blue, and I couldn’t swallow any water.”

According to Kimberly Gibson, Bock’s mother, the cardiologists initially told them that Bock had asthma.

“When it all started, we took her to (the (emergency room) to (Cook Children’s Hospital) in Fort Worth,” Gibson said. “She went through the emergency program there; they did all kinds of testing, and then they referred us to a known cardiologist there. We went to him, and then he released her to play, saying she had exercise-induced asthma.”

David Bock, her father, said he was just as concerned after his daughter’s collapse.

Bock did not have any more problems with passing out until one game in her freshman year at Nicholls when she had another attack. It felt like an asthma attack in which she strained for air and could not breathe.

The next week at practice, the same thing happened when Bock was running sprints. After that, she was taken to the hospital where echocardiograms (EKGs) were run.

It was the Nicholls trainers, according to Bock’s father, who recognized that there was a problem with Bock.

“One of her trainers saw the conditions and said, ‘This is not asthma, this is something else,’ and that’s when we discovered it was a heart problem,” David Bock said.

Bock’s mother added that the trainers persuaded them to look deeper into their daughter’s condition.

“It was actually the trainers at Nicholls State that convinced us to pursue further to get second opinions on it (the heart condition) because they didn’t like the way she was passing out and the breathing,” Gibson said.
Bock began the journey from hospital to hospital for tests. She visited Tulane, Thibodaux Regional and the Lafourche Heart Center. Doctors, however, were unsure how to diagnose Bock.

“They thought I had rheumatic heart disease, which comes from rheumatic fever as a child, yet you’re not supposed to get any of the side effects until your late thirties or forties,” Bock said.

“They really don’t know what it is, but my heart wasn’t beating right,” Bock added. “It usually beats top-bottom, top-bottom, but just the bottom part was beating. There is a leak in my heart called a mitral valve prolapse, which is when the mitral valve doesn’t close right. This causes me to have shortness of breath and dizziness spells, but I don’t pass out.”
While going through all these tests, the doctors told Bock that she would only have about a 10 percent chance to ever play soccer again.

According to Susan Michele Robichaux, associate professor of biological sciences, the process for a heartbeat consists of a series of electrical
currents.

“The first thing that happens is that we spread that (electrical) current throughout both sides of the upper part of the heart, and then they contract,” Robichaux said. “Then it (electrical current) goes down the middle of the heart to the bottom on either side. They have electrical activity, and then they contract. It’s a sequence: the atria and ventricles contract and relax, and that’s your heart beat.”

Bock said there are complications with her sinoatrial (SA) node and atrioventricular (AV) node. The pacemaker, surgically implanted at Tulane, helps these two nodes work correctly. Anytime her heart is off track, the pacemaker gives it a little shock.

Bock said the doctors had no problem with her playing soccer and actually encouraged it.

“The doctor, Wayne Fharo, who did the surgery at Tulane and my doctor at the Heart Center in Lafourche both are very much into me playing soccer,” Bock said. “They want me to play; they think it is one of the best things I can do for it (my condition).”

After consulting with doctors for their approval, Bock’s father said he also was not worried about his daughter playing soccer with a pacemaker.

“We consulted with all the doctors and basically said, ‘we want your approval so she can play because this (the pacemaker) should not stop her from playing’,” David Bock said.

“Well, we had one doctor, but it was basically like a vote,” David Bock added. “We went to two or three doctors. We went to Dr. Fharo, and he said ‘Yeah she should get to play.'”

Despite her pacemaker being put under her heart to give it extra protection, Bock said she still has to be cautious because she still gets shortness of breath from the leak in her heart.

Bock says there are complications that come with her pacemaker that she has to worry about.

“Every eight years I have to have my battery changed, so I have to go in for the surgery every eight years,” Bock said. “Also in my early to late thirties, I have to have open-heart surgery to replace my (leaky) valve.”
Head soccer coach Cindy Piper said that Bock is a strong person who has made it this far because of her love of the game.

“She’s obviously a strong kid,” Piper said. “With most kids, with something that serious, either their parents tell them they can’t play or they’re just scared to death to play. The kid’s just tough. I can’t believe she’s playing through it. She loves the game, and I think that carries her a lot further than anything else.”

Teammate and sophomore defender Billie Anne Potter called Bock a hard worker who “busts her butt” in practice all the time.

“She deserves everything she’s received, and she works for everything she has,” Potter said. “She has a pacemaker, but she doesn’t let it stop her. She’s a great teammate, and I love playing with her.”

As a freshman in 2003, Bock was named the Southland Conference’s Newcomer of the Year after appearing in 19 games with 16 starts. She attempted four shots on the season.

Bock prepped at Arlington High School where she garnered defensive MVP and All-District honors following the 2000-2001 season. She played four years for the Olympic Development Program state team and was a member of the Lake Highlands League Division I championship squad.
Besides competing in soccer in high school, Bock participated in volleyball, basketball, track, wrestling and cross-country.

After leaving Nicholls, Bock would like to go to Europe, where there is professional soccer, so she could try to join a soccer team. If that does not work out, however, Bock said she would get her degree in history and work towards her master’s degree.